PancettaOnce you've conquered the duck breast move on to pork belly to make pancetta, a simple Italian bacon. Remember: 3% salt to meat ratio by weight, and cure in the fridge for about a week.

BaconThe holy grail! Basically the same thing as pancetta, but typically with a sweeter cure and smoked. Regular bacon is delicious (duh), but if you really want to blow some minds, step up to Sichuan bacon. BOOM.

ShrubsThese drinking vinegars are easy and surprisingly refreshing. Based on recipes from Michael Dietsch's book Shrubs: An Old-Fashioned Drink for Modern Times, we demoed a basic fruit shrub of 1 pound fruit macerated in 3/4 cup sugar, then strained and mixed with 3/4 cup vinegar. But the possibilities are limitless!

One of the newest additions to the forager's library is also one of the most compelling. Dina Falconi's Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook stands apart from the pack in one key way. The large-format book is stunningly illustrated with botanicals by Wendy Hollender. These figures not only educate but delight the eye. (See the illustration for wild grape, above.) In fact, you'd want to frame them and hang them on the wall, except then they wouldn't help you in the field.

SalsaAmerica's favorite condiment comes in a dizzying array of colors and flavors, as diverse as the country it hails from. Whether you go for straight-up tomato, zesty green salsa verde, or salsas made with corn or fruit, your tortilla chips will thank you (and so will your guests). (Image via Cooking Channel)

GuacamoleCool, creamy guacamole leverages the avocado's naturally rich texture. Kick it up as spicy as you like, or leave it mild as a delicious dip. (Image via Alyssa and Carla)

I make no secret of my love for Mexican food. Epicures may fawn over French fare, or extol the virtues of imperial Chinese, I think Mexican food is arguably the most underrated of cuisines, with an endlessly creative approach to combining flavors.

The heart of Mexican food is in its salsas. Domestically we tend to think of salsa as just something that sits on a chip, but in fact they are, as the word translates, sauces that are designed to complement everything from snacks to mains to even desserts.

Deborah Schneider of SOL Cocina in Newport Beach and Scottsdale, and Solita taco bars in Ventura and Huntington Beach, distills her extensive knowledge of the condiment in Salsas and Moles. She begins with some salsa basics: Principles of balance in flavor and texture, and a useful primer on types of chiles (and how to handle them.) And then she dives deep, clustering recipes into groups of table salsas, hot salsas, moles and enchilada sauces, sauces specifically for tacos, and chunky salsas and botanas.

Think tomato salsa is a one-note symphony? The book features tomatoes in dozens of salsas. Fresh or simmered, mild or spiked with chile heat, as the star or backup singer; each is utterly distinct. You'll find familiar items like pico de gallo and guacamole, but also salsas that highlight the use of specific chiles, like habanero, manzana and güero. Got a bulletproof palate? Try the Evil Green Hot Sauce or Volcano Salsa.

The book crescendos with those most sophisticated of sauces, moles. Schneider not only provides a thorough recipe for the classic mole poblano, queen of Mexican sauces, but a quick version as well. Moreover, she reveals the rainbow of other moles: Red chile, negro, verde, and the nutty, herby pipiàn. (Ready to try your hand at classic mole poblano? Get the recipe here.)

The book is accessible and tempting. It will inspire you to try your hand at homemade salsas, and incorporating them into your everyday cooking.

You want it, don't you? Of course you do. So how do you enter to win? We've got options -- lots of options. You can do any or all of the following things:

Cinco de mayo has nothing to do with Mexican independence, but you can liberate yourself from store-bought salsa. Whatever kind you like, whip up a batch today for chip-dipping good times.

Tomato SalsaIt's the classic, and America's favorite condiment. Delicious on chips of course, but also a versatile side to fish and chicken. And if you use the right recipe, it can even be canned.

Fermented SalsaLacto-fermented salsa is one of the simplest ways for beginners to play with cultured and fermented foods. Ferment tomatoes, chilies and more to tickle your belly and tongue in a good way!

Salsa VerdeWhir up some tomatillos, chilies and herbs for a tangy salsa with a slightly fruity flavor.

Corn SalsaChunky, sweet and spicy, corn salsa is a summertime crowd-pleaser. Try it on dogs for your next barbecue!

If you walk alongside waterways in the American East, you may see bright green blades protruding up from the leaf cover this time of year. Ramps, or wild leeks, are one of the earliest wild foods to forage, and a great delicacy they are. They're the surest sign that spring is really ramping up.

Foraging RampsRamps are one of the easiest and most rewarding wild foods to forage, but their popularity has put them at risk. Learn how to identify them, and what measures to take to prevent overharvesting. (Image via Garden of Eating)

But outside of a few exceptions, like tea smoking or green tea ice cream, I hadn't really given much thought to the use of tea as an ingredient in cooking. So when my friend Annelies announced she was writing a book in it, my interest was piqued.

In Steeped: Recipes Infused with Tea, Annelies explores the use of various teas as flavoring agents much as you would go spelunking in your spice drawer. By using different techniques, such as hot versus cold infusion, or grinding dry tea into a spice-like powder, she teases out different aspects of each tea to particular effect.

An aha moment for me was her recipe for Sweet Tea Jelly, a natural fit for preserving, but one that had never occurred to me. Yet how could it be anything less than perfect on scones? She incorporates tea in more clever ways, like mixing matcha into a pasta dough for Green Tea Noodles in Asparagus Sauce with Goat Cheese Pearls.

The quietly vegetarian book is structured into teas as meals — morning tea, afternoon tea, high tea, and the like — and you'll find yourself integrating them into your regular rotation for all meals of the day.

You want it, don't you? Of course you do. So how do you enter to win? We've got options -- lots of options. You can do any or all of the following things:

Rhubarb is the darling of spring. These sour stalks are techincally a vegetable, but their tart taste lends them to applications more common with fruit. What can you do with it? What can't you do? Here's a whole bunch of ideas.